Tarik Skubal: Tigers didn't make long-term offer in offseason - ESPN

Tarik Skubal, as he prepares to make his lone World Baseball Classic start Saturday, addressed his future in Detroit, telling USA Today Sports that he never received a long-term offer from the Tigers this offseason and that there were no negotiations over the arbitration gap that ended with the ace pitcher getting a record deal.

«There is no offer,» Skubal told USA TODAY Sports, «and there won't be an offer until the end of the season.… My focus is on playing baseball and winning this year. I'll deal with the contract stuff at the end of the year, and then we'll kind of see. And that's fine. It's their decision.»

The two-time Cy Young Award winner and the Tigers had a $13 million gap in their arbitration offers, with the star left-hander seeking $32 million and Detroit offering $19 million. Skubal won his arbitration hearing in early February, besting the record salary for a player in the arbitration system by $1 million and shattering the previous high mark of $19.9 million for an award from a panel.

By reaching free agency in the next offseason, Skubal is expected to seek a contract of at least $400 million, which would be a record for pitcher.

But Skubal indicated he was moving on from the arbitration hearing and any contract talks and focusing on winning in Detroit this year.

«That's where my focus is, trying to win a World Series for the city of Detroit, the team that drafted me in 2018,» Skubal said. «The Tigers fans are excited, they're really invested in this club, and so are we.

»… You can kind of see that a World Series is attainable with the additions that we've made. And that's all you can ask for, is to play on a team with World Series aspirations year in and year out. So it's going to be a ton of fun this